Helping us to safeguard children in our care

Child Safeguarding

Child Safeguarding means protecting children who are vulnerable. Unaccompanied children such as the Bright World students you transport for us are vulnerable and therefore your role as a driver is so important in our mission to keep our students safe.

Helping us to safeguard our students

Bright World drivers spend a lot of time with our students and we ask them to help us to safeguard them by alerting us and the authorities if they have any concerns about their welfare.

What is child abuse?

Child abuse is any action by another person – adult or child – that causes significant harm to a child. It can be physical, sexual or emotional, but can just as often be about a lack of love, care and attention. We know that neglect, whatever form it takes, can be just as damaging to a child as physical abuse.

An abused child will often experience more than one type of abuse, as well as other difficulties in their lives. It often happens over a period of time, rather than being a one-off event. And it can increasingly happen online.

Types of abuse:

Domestic
Sexual
Neglect
Physical
Emotional
Online
Child Sexual Exploitation (see more overleaf)
Cyberbullying
Bullying
Female Genital Mutilation
Grooming
Trafficking

What are the signs of abuse?

If you have regular students you drive for us you may spot changes in their behaviour. Some signs of abuse could be:

• Changes in what they would normally wear ( eg. long-sleeves in summer could be attempting to hide bruising)
• Not as talkative as usual – quiet and withdrawn rather than chatty
• Extreme anger or sadness
• Tearful, lack of self-esteem, depression
• Noticeable marks or bruising which are explained
• Unexpected new friends
• Changes in appearance, poor personal hygiene, clothes unwashed.

Child Protection Safeguarding Awareness Code of Conduct

You, as a Bright World Driver, will have access to a Drivers’ Documentation section of our portal, Blink.

This will include links to online Child Protection Training courses and other important documents. We would ask you to take the online training offered and read the documents.

We encourage you to do the course and learn more to protect children and yourself.